MOSES, 


REV.  DR.  ISAAC  M.  WISE. 


MOSES, 


THE  MAN  AND  STATESMAN 


A  LECTURE 


Delivered    in    New   York  and    Boston,  January  23    and    25,     1883. 


BY  REV   DR.  ISAAC  M.  WISE. 


I/>CH  A  CO.,   PUBLISHERS, 
CINCINNATI. 


Stack 
Annex 


5014093 


MOSES,  THE  MAN  AND  STATESMAN. 

GREAT  men  are  the  most  instructive  and  most  attractive 
text-books,  whose  paragraphs  are  deeds,  and  the  reflex  of  hu- 
man greatness  are  the  notes.  Deeds  overwhelm  the  heart  and 
their  reflexes  capture  the  mind  with  that  superior  force  by 
which  the  drama  excels  the  lyric  poem  and  nature  outstrips 
the  most  eminent  works  of  art.  The  lives  of  great  men  are 
leaves  in  the  Bible  of  humanity,  illustrated  by  that  unex- 
celled master-painter  whose  name  is  Truth.  In  the  panorama 
of  every-day  life,  we  observe  the  movement  of  figures,  so  closely 
akin  to  ourselves  that  they  become  uninteresting,  and,  finally, 
annoying  and  depressing.  It  is  the  vulgar  curiosity-shop.  In 
the  Pantheon  of  those  demi-gods  who  enacted  the  proudest 
scenes  in  the  drama  of  man's  history,  we  are  brought  face  to 
face  with  man  in  his  glory,  and  feel  encouraged,  cheered  and 
elated  with  the  exposition  of  what  man  could  be  and  should 
be,  and  begin  to  feel  that  he  was  properly  called  "  Creation's 
Lord,"  who  exclaims  "  The  world,  the  world  is  mine." 

The  stars  are  not  of  equal  magnitude,  density  and  brilliancy, 
nor  are  all  great  men  equally  great.  Some  are  suns,  others 
planets,  and  others  again  mere  satellites.  The  suns,  it  appears, 
are  most  distant  from  us.  We  utilize  in  art  antique  models ; 
in  architecture  we  study  ancient  monuments ;  in  style,  prose  or 
poetry,  we  imitate  classical  forms  of  by-gone  days.  We  do 
precisely  the  same  in  philosophy  and  jurisprudence,  in  ethics 
and  aesthetics,  in  religion  and  theology.  We  exhume  ancient 
forms  and  formulas.  We  abstract  the  spirit  of  men  and  works 
of  the  past,  and  systematize  that  essence  into  standards  by 


which  to  measure  the  events  and  demands  of  the  age,  to  regu- 
late and  to  satisfy  them.  It  is  that  which  we  call  learning  and 
practical  wisdom,  science  and  art. 

However  humiliating  this  may  sound,  it  is  nevertheless  true. 
With  the  exception  of  the  natural  sciences,  the  mechanical 
arts,  and  whatever  increases  by  the  accumulation  of  human 
experience  and  experiment,  objective  observation  and  ocular 
demonstration,  we  are  the  pupils  and  heirs  of  the  men  of  gray 
antiquity. 

Those  ancient  'men  not  only  lived  closer  to  the  lap  of  be- 
nign and  instructive  nature  than  we  do,  but  the  themes  of  their 
thoughts  were  also  more  sublime  than  ours.  They  concen- 
trated their  energies  upon  themselves,  and  sought  to  solve  the 
mysteries  of  human  nature,  which  led  them  into  the  mysteries 
of  existence,  and  so  they  elaborated  the  great  themes  of  man, 
conscience,  right,  goodness,  beauty,  God,  and  man's  relations 
to  the  Almighty.  They  were  purely  subjective,  and  the  mind 
grew  gigantic  under  the  influence  of  ennobling  and  invigorat- 
ing themes.  In  our  phase  of  civilization,  however,  man  has 
become  objective,  science  is  objective,  invention  is  objective,  the 
entire  occupation  of  the  man  and  the  text-book  of  the  lad  are 
objective;  the  mind  is  absorbed  in  matter  and  its  modifica- 
tions ;  thought  reaches  not  beyond  that  lower  region,  its  themes 
are  coarse  and  cold. 

The  old  violin,  upon  which  none  but  skilled  artists  played, 
can  not  be  imitated  by  any  artisan.  It  appears  that  the  mel- 
low notes,  the  sweet  echoes  of  the  maestrd's  charming  melo- 
dies, are  mysteriously  retained  in  the  dumb  instrument.  The 
beautiful  melodies  of  moral  and  intellectual  themes  played 
upon  the  chords  of  the  mind  leave  their  sweet  echoes  in  the 
human  character.  The  violin  improves  not,  because  it  records 
no  vivifying  melodies.  We  have  not  been  able  to  duplicate 
Moses,  Solomon  and  Isaiah,  Plato  and  Aristotle,  Homer  and 


Virgil,  Caesar  and  Marcus  Aurelius.  All  we  can,  and  in  fact 
do,  is  to  convert  the  inherited  heavy  gold  coins  into  small 
change,  and  distribute  it  among  the  large  masses  of  our  fellow- 
men,  assist  and  enable  them  to  partake  of  the  heritage  of  man. 

If  it  is  admitted  that  in  all  objective  sciences  and  arts  we 
are  in  advance  of  the  ancient?,  and  in  all  subjective  sciences 
they  were  our  superiors  and  masters,  it  must  be  equally  admittd 
that  they  were  grander  characters,  men  and  women  more  sub- 
lime and  more  powerful  than  we  are.  For  it  is  by  those  very 
subjective  treasures  that  the  character  is  formed,  the  will  in- 
vigorated, and  that  the  energies  are  prompted  and  stimulated  to 
great  and  glorious  deeds,  to  sublime  outpourings  of  immortal 
truth.  We  do  yet  catch  fire  from  their  fire  and  borrow  light 
from  their  light.  Hence  when  we  speak  of  great  men,  to  con- 
template them  as  patterns  of  superior  humanity,  we  speak  of 
distant  suns,  the  great  men  of  antiquity,  first  and  foremost. 

Among  the  monuments  of  ancient  genius  the  Bible  oc- 
cupies a  prominent  place  on  account  of  the  sublimity  of  its 
themes,  the  depth  and  universality  of  its  conceptions,  the 
simplicity  of  its  language  and  the  exquisite  beauty  of  human 
character  which  it  presents  to  the  mind  in  mighty,  dramatical 
figures.  It  is  certainly  to  the  millions  the  most  ennobling  and 
most  enlightening  book  they  possess.  It  is  greatness  and  good- 
ness presenting  themselves  in  life-size  figures  of  charming 
features.  It  removes  the  veil  from  heaven's  dome  and  permits 
the  mortal  to  gaze  into  the  mysteries  of  existence,  the  glory  of 
the  spirit.  Again  in  that  old  Bible  of  the  Hebrews  one  classical 
and  colossal  figure  overtowers  all  the  others.  It  looks  like  the 
giant  cedar  among  the  trees,  like  the  snow  capped  Baker  among 
the  Rocky  Mountains,  like  the  sun  among  the  planets.  This 
colossal,  classical  figure  is  the  son  of  Amram  and  Jochebed — 
Moses,  the  "  servant  of  Jehovah,"  the  redeemer  and  legislator 
of  Israel,  the  man  who  with  his  stylus  of  iron  engraved  upon 


the  rock  of  ages  the  duties  and  destinies  of  the  human  family, 
to  which,  as  he  said,  nothing  should  be  added,  from  which 
nothing  should  be  taken  away. 

Permit  me,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  to  speak  to  you  this  even- 
ing of  Moses.  I  think  he  is  the  grandest  man  of  all  known  to 
fame  in  history.  You  must  not  think  that  I  have  selected  this 
subject  for  this  evening  because  it  is  maintained  on  the  one  hand 
that  there  was  no  Moses,  and  on  the  other  hand  that  he  is  a 
mythical  character,  to  whom  posterity  ascribed  deeds,  laws  and 
institutions  unknown  to  him  and  his  cotemporaries.  Assertions 
so  unhistorical  and  unphilosophical,  and  altogether  negative, 
could  not  well  be  made  the  subject  of  a  lecture.  I  have  selected 
Moses,  because  I  think  he  was  the  greatest  man  of  antiquity, 
and  because  I  felt  the  desire  to  speak  to  you  favorably  of  an 
old  acquaintance  and  friend.  I  have  first  to  say  a  few  words  on 

THE   MAN   MOSES. 

Whatever  Grecian  writers  up  to  Josephus,  the  Rabbis  and  the 
Mohammedans  reported  of  the  life  of  Moses  in  addition  to  the 
Pentateuchal  notices,  has  the  value  for  the  student  of  history, 
that  from  it  he  might  learn  how  posterity  exaggerates  and 
ornaments  the  life  of  its  heroes  in  default  or  even  in  spite  of 
authentic  history.  Outside  of  the  Pentateuchal  notices  we 
know  nothing  of  Moses,  his  life  or  his  character.  And  in  the 
Pentateuch,  or  Five  Books  of  Moses,  the  notices  concerning 
the  life  of  its  master  mind  are  very  few  and  meager,  as  it  is  not 
intended  to  narrate  what  Moses  did  or  suffered ;  it  is  rather 
intended  to -narrate  what  God -did  in  Israel.  Moses  occupies 
so  small  a  space  in  the  Books  of  Moses  that  his  authorship  can 
hardly  be  doubted.  If  at  a  later  period  one  or  more  men  had 
written  that  work,  he  or  they  would  certainly  have  glorified  the 
redeemer,  lawgiver,  hero,  statesman  and  father  of  his  people, 
and  depicted  him  in  glowing  oriental  colors. 


n    

Again,  among  those  brief  notices  there  are  certainly  some 
of  a  later  date.  "  The  man  Moses  was  very  meek,"  posterity 
said  of  the  same  man,  of  whom  it  was  said :  "And  Moses 
knew  not  that  the  skin  of  his  face  beamed  " ;  and  "  There  rose 
not  in  Israel  again  a  prophet  like  Moses."  These  quotations 
were  certainly  written  after  the  death  of  Moses,  as  in  the  first 
instance  the  term  K^Km  "And  the  man  Moses  "  proves,  for 
this  was  a  title  foreign  to  Moses  in  speaking  of  himself  ;  and 
the  two  latter  passages  could  not  be  true  if  the  former  was. 
If  he  was  a  meek  man,  he  could  not  speak  of  his  countenance 
beaming  with  glory  and  of  his  superiority  as  a  prophet  above 
all  men  in  Israel.  On  the  other  hand,  however,  it  must  be  ad- 
mitted that  the  same  kind  of  rational  criteria  which  lead  us 
to  suspect  the  authenticity  of  some  passages  necessitate  us  to 
accept  others  as  authentic.  The  object  of  the  Pentateuch  is 
certainly  righteousness  and  holiness,  the  fear  of  God,  the  or- 
ganization and  government  of  society  on  strictly  ethical  prin- 
ciples. The  author  and  compiler  of  such  a  book,  without  any 
\vorldly  or  personal  interests  in  view,  must  not  and  can  not 
be  suspected  of  any  willful  falsehood  ;  and  it  is  a  crime  against 
human  nature  to  raise  such  an  accusation,  unless  irrefutable, 
hisiorical  or  a  priori  arguments  establish  facts  contrary  to  his 
allegations.  He  may  exaggerate  traditions,  amplify  and 
apostrophize  in  poetical  effusion.  He  may  canonize  worldly 
deeds  and  surround  common  affairs  with  the  halo  of  the 
miraculous,  the  aspect  of  the  wonderful.  He  may,  in  glowing 
colors,  depict  the  psychical  subjective  visions  as  real  and  ob- 
jective actions  and  processes.  But  he  can  not  and  must  not 
be  suspected  of  willful  falsehood.  Consequently  we  have  a 
legitimate  canon  of  criticism  to  recognize  the  authentic  pas- 
sages, and  it  is  to  those  to  which  we  now  turn. 

We  are  told  with  the  utmost  brevity  that  Moses,  born  to  Am- 
ram  and  Jochebed,  in  the  time  of  oppression  and  servitude,  was 


g  

doomed  to  die  by  the  king's  cruel  mandate,  but  was  rescued  by 
a  natural  yet  marvelous  incident  which  gave  him  temporarily 
back  to  his  mother  and  afforded  him  the  golden  opportunity  to 
acquire  an  education  at  the  royal  court.  This  little  chain  of  acci- 
dents, so  necessary  to  make  of  the  Hebrew  infant  the  man  Moses, 
is  delineated  with  such  sublime  simplicity  that  the  reader  can 
not  tell  whether  the  writer  intended  to  convey  the  idea  that 
Providence  so  designed  and  executed  it  in  order  to  make  the 
infant  Moses  the  redeemer  and  lawgiver,  or  whether  he  merely 
records  the  natural  incidents  by  which  the  waif  could  become 
the  powerful  man.  Aside  from  the  delicate  dramatic  touches 
peeping  through  the  narrow  crevices  of  a  mother's  anguish 
and  a  sister's  devotion,  the  whole  story  is  too  simple  and  nat- 
ural to  be  doubted.  If  poetry  it  were,  it  would  be  much  more 
complicated  and  ornate.  If  it  had  been  written  at  any  time  after 
Moses,  hosts  of  stars  and  angels,  shepherds  and  kings,  miracles 
and  a  host  of  supernatural  demonstrations  would  have  been 
called  into  requisition  to  furnish  the  proper  frame  for  so  im- 
portant a  picture  as  the  birth  of  the  redeemer  and  lawgiver. 

Having  thus  been  informed  of  the  birth  and  first  fate  of 
Moses,  the  records  are  silent  as  to  his  education.  We  imagine 
that  he  was  well  instructed  in  all  the  arts  and  sciences  of  Egypt ; 
and  we  imagine  this  by  inference  and  interpretation  only,  for 
we  have  no  direct  information  to  this  effect.  It  is  certainly 
false  to  maintain  that  Moses  was  an  Egyptian  priest,  since  none 
besides  the  king,  unless  born  of  priestly  parents,  was  ever  ad- 
mitted to  that  caste. 

Moses  appears  again  on  the  stage  of  life,  not  as  the  Egyptian 
commander  and  conqueror  of  Ethiopia,  as  the  ancient  legend 
has  it,  but  when  he  had  reached  the  age  of  maturity  he  went 
out  to  see  his  brethren  in  their  state  of  abject  servitude.  Then 
and  there  he  slew  and  buried  a  taskmaster  who  had  smitten  a 
Hebrew  slave.  All  sapient  moralists  cry  horror  over  that  rash 


9 

deed,  which  they  certainly  would  not  do  if  John  Brown  had 
killed  a  Virginia  taskmaster  under  similar  circumstances.  It 
was  a  rash  act,  perhaps  unworthy  of  the  lawgiver  Moses,  al- 
though it  remains  uncertain  in  the  text  whether  the  Egyptian 
taskmaster  had  not  killed  the  Hebrew  slave,  as  in  both  in- 
stances the  same  term  (VI  and  rDD)  is  used.  But  it  certainly 
was  not  so  unworthy  of  the  youthful  patriot  who,  descending 
from  the  height  of  the  royal  court  to  his  brethren  in  distress, 
felt  so  much  more  indignant  and  outraged  by  the  taskmaster's 
brutal  conduct.  It  was  certainly  a  case  of  strong  provocation, 
which,  in  the  hands  of  Col.  Robert  Ingersoll  before  any  criminal 
court,  would  constitute  a  successful  plea  to  clear  an  ordinary 
assassin. 

This  incident,  however,  also  shows  that  Moses,  by  his  natural 
disposition,  could  tolerate  no  wrong;  while  another  incident 
shows  that  he  could  not  be  an  idle  spectator  where  one  was  being 
perpetrated.  When  a  fugitive  in  the  wilderness,  he  witnessed  how 
rude  shepherds  took  advantage  over  their  female  companions  at 
the  well  of  water.  He  was  on  hand  to  protect  that  sheperdess, 
afterward  his  wife  Zipporah,  and  her  sisters.  Here  we  have 
before  us  the  fundamental  traits  of  the  character  of  a  law-giver, 
courage  and  a  predominant  love  of  justice.  The  man  of  stern 
justice  resents  every  wrong  done  to  his  fellow-creature ;  and  such 
a  man  only  can  be  a  law-giver.  Whoever  commits  a  wrong,  or 
sees  others  do  it  with  impunity,  can  not  become  an  apostle  of 
justice.  Now,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  I  think  on  account  of  the 
truly  chivalric  conduct  of  Moses  toward  Lady  Zipporah  in  the 
wilderness,  his  opponents  ought  to  forgive  him  the  "  mistakes" 
he  is  supposed  to  have  otherwise  made.  The  other  hostile  party 
ought  to  be  convinced  that  Moses  was  a  living  reality,  for  he 
went  to  the  house  of  Jethro,  married  Zipporah,  begat  children 
and  became  a  vulgar  shepherd,  all  of  which  is  decidedly  unbe- 
coming the  hero  of  a  myth.  And  the  third  party  ought  to  feel 


—  10  — 

assured  that  these  incidents  were  not  penned  down  by  an  ad- 
mirer of  a  later  date ;  for  he  would  certainly  not  have  permitted 
that  the  distinguished  "  Servant  of  the  Lord  "  should  have  mar- 
ried the  daughter  of  an  Arabian  Sheikh,  who  was  not  of  the  house 
of  Israel,  and  not  circumcise  his  sons  till  his  wife  in  rather  an 
unkind  manner  reminded  him  of  his  duty,  and  heed  the  ad- 
vice of  his  Heathen  father  in-law  in  the  important  matter  of 
provisional  organization.  A  later  writer,  priest  or  prophet, 
would  certainly  have  improved  these  incidents,  especially  in 
the  days  of  Ezra  and  Nehemiah,  to  whom  intermarriage  with 
Gentiles  was  an  abomination.  The  fact  that  Moses,  setting  out 
on  a  foreign  mission,  took  his  wife  and  children  with  him,  al- 
though she  was  but  a  plain  shepherdess,  and  returned  with 
them  to  Egypt,  is  proof  positive  that  he  was  a  good  husband 
and  father,  in  consideration  of  which  the  party  of  the  first  part 
ought  to  forgive  him  his  other  "  mistakes." 

It  is  unjust  and  unreasonable,  to  put  it  in  the  mildest  form, 
to  judge  the  character  and  career  of  a  statesman  and  legislator 
of  the  prominence  and  eminence  of  Moses,  by  the  oidinary 
standard  applied  to  gauge  the  moral  character  of  a  man  of  the 
nineteenth  century  under  ordinary  circumstances.  The  worst 
"  mistake  "  made  by  the  fault-finders  in  this  case  is,  that  they 
can  not  see  that  extraordinary  emergencies  and  circumstances, 
and  the  solution  of  extraordinary  problems,  such  as  the  law- 
giver in  the  wilderness  was  called  upon  to  face  and  to  solve,  re- 
quire that  prudence,  firmness  and  forbearance  which  only  great 
and  good  men  possess ;  regulations,  measures  and  the  moment- 
ary toleration  of  evils  which  under  other  circumstances  might 
appear  unjust  and  immoral.  With  Moses,  however,  all  those 
alleged  "  mistakes  "  are  counterpoised  and  by  far  overbalanced 
by  his 

UNSELFISHNESS    AND    HONESTY    OF    PURPOSE. 

In  the  wh^le  of  his   record  M-Mes  app3ars    almost  imper- 


—  11  — 

eonal.  He  assumes  no  titles,  seeks  no  prerogatives  and  no 
emoluments  for  himself  or  his  immediate  posterity.  He  could 
stand  up  before  his  enemies  in  the  Korah  rebellion,  and  declare 
before  God,  "  Not  one  ass  of  theirs  have  I  taken."  His  sons 
were  no  officers,  and  inherited  nothing,  not  even  an  extra  por- 
tion of  land  in  Canaan.  His  brother  was  given  the  priesthood, 
because  he  stood  at  the  head  of  the  people  in  Egypt  as  his  col- 
laborator in  their  redemption.  His  tribe  was  distinguished  not 
on  his  account,  but  because  those  Levites  proved  faithful  to 
the  cause,  when  many  rebelled  and  madly  danced  around  the 
golden  calf.  He  asked  nothing  for  himself,  not  even  a  sepul- 
cher,  nothing  in  life,  and  nothing  after  death.  The  plain  and 
meek  "  Servant  of  Jehovah"  who  might  have  been  a  king  and 
a  god,  the  founder  of  a  dynasty  and  of  gorgeous  temples  to 
perpetuate  his  glory,  died  on  "Mount  Nebo,  ''And  no  man 
knoweth  his  grave  to  this  day,"  his  children  disappear  from  his 
nation's  chronicle,  and  a  man  of  another  tribe  is  his  successor 
in  office.  Those  who  have  made  man  and  men  their  study 
must  be  well  aware  how  rare  and  unique  such  unselfishness 
is,  even  among  the  greatest  and  best  of  the  human  race.  Few, 
if  any,  have  ever  risen  to  that  moral  height  that  they  said,  "  I 
wish  all  the  people  of  Jehovah  were  prophets,  and  Jehovah 
would  give  his  spirit  upon  them." 

Moses  lived  for  a  cause,  to  which  his  life  and  energies  were 
devoted  with  the  utmost  honesty  of  purpose,  because  he  was 
entirely  unselfish.  He  embraced  it  when  he  was  a  youth  and 
a  prince ;  adhered  to  it  as  a  shepherd  in  the  wilderness ;  em-  . 
braced  and  pushed  it  to  a  successful  issue  under  all  the  diffi- 
culties, dangers  and  storms  in  Egypt;  never  wavered,  never 
doubted  its  final  success  under  the  horrors  of  the  wilderness ; 
the  wild  commotions  of  agitated  multitudes,  the  frustration  of 
his  plans  and  hopes,  the  death  of  his  comrades  and  fellow-suf- 
ferers about  him,  the  waste  of  his  years,  and  the  approach  of 


—  12  — 

his  end,  confirmed  and  sealed  his  unshaken  faith  in  the  grand 
cause  to  the  last  breath  of  his  life. 

The  mice — you  know  the  story  of  the  mice  that  conspired 
one  day  to  undermine  the  rock  of  Gibraltar ;  they  gnawed  and 
gnawed  again  with  their  little  teeth  until  they  were  dead,  and 
the  rock  is  there  yet,  and  is  yet  a  rock.  Exactly  so  do  those  ap- 
pear to  intelligent  men  whose  petty  business  it  is  to  find  fault 
with  Moses.  Where  are  the  men  of  that  unselfishness  and 
stern  honesty  of  purpose?  And  yet  this  is  the  standard  by 
which  to  measure  the  statesman  and  legislator's  moral  char- 
acter, the  amount  of  justice  embodied  in  his  laws,  the  unsel- 
fishness manifested  in  his  actions,  and  the  honesty  of  purpose 
characterizing  his  career.  It  is  easier  to  die  than  to  live  one 
hundred  and  twenty  years  for  a  great  cause  under  all  the  storms 
and  miseries  of  life.  It  is  a  momentary  inspiration,  perhaps  a 
periodical  insanity,  to  die  for  a  cause ;  it  is  a  perpetual  inspira- 
tion and  resoluteness  to  live  for  it.  No  prophet  has  yet  risen 
in  Israel  like  Moses. 

But  we  must  not  forget  that  Moses  was  of  a  sanguine  tem- 
perament. 

PASSIONATE,  RASH   AND   IMPETUOUS. 

He  slew  the  Egyptian  task-master  in  a  fit  of  passion.  He 
threw  down  and  rashly  broke  the  two  tables  of  stone,  the  most 
precious  gift  he  had  to  bestow  on  his  people.  Impetuously  he 
smote  repeatedly  the  dumb  rock  to  cause  it  to  pour  forth  its 
water,  when  he  had  been  commanded  to  speak  only,  and  he 
angrily  addressed  his  own  people  and  disciples,  "  Hear  now, 
ye  rebels." 

In  the  most  trying  events  recorded  in  the  Pentateuch,  which 
momentarily  arrested  the  onward  career  of  Moses  and  threat- 
ened to  end  it  ignominiously,  he  proved  the  impetuosity  of 
his  passionate  character.  I  refer  to  the  sequences  of  the  "  golden 
calf"  in  the  camp  of  Israel,  the  uproar  in  the  camp  after  the 


—  13  — 

return  of  the  spies  from  Canaan,  and  the  revolt  of  Korah  and 
his  conspirators.  In  the  first  instance  Moses  saw  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  base  upon  which  he  had  reared  the  gorgeous  struc- 
ture of  Israel's  redemption  and  his  elevation  to  the  position  of 
God's  chosen  people.  He  perceived  the  curse  of  Egyptian  idol- 
atry triumph  again  over  that  pure  Monotheism,  which  was  the 
objective  point  of  his  mission,  his  ardent  labors,  his  cherished 
hopes,  his  faith  and  conviction.  The  whole  work  of  a  lifetime 
and  the  sole  hope  of  Israel  and  mankind  appeared  to  collapse 
like  a  bubble.  He  hurls  from  his  arms  the  two  tables  of  stone 
and  breaks  the  most  precious  treasure  he  had  to  give ;  and  he 
hears  the  voice  of  God  telling  him,  "  And  now  let  me  alone, 
that  my  anger  wax  hot  against  them,  and  I  consume  them,  and 
make  of  thee  a  great  nation."  Consume — utterly  annihilate  at 
once — the  poor,  deluded  multitude.  How  passionate !  How 
rash  and  impetuous  !  In  the  second  instance  Moses  perceives 
his  great  hope  of  organizing  a  people  in  the  Holy  Land  to  em- 
body and  realize,  to  promulgate  and  perpetuate  the  sublime 
principle  -  of  truth  and  human  happiness,  frustrated,  crushed 
by  the  cowardice  of  petulant  men.  The  returning  spies  had 
incensed  the  people  to  revolt ;  they  refused  to  go  up  to  Canaan 
and  demanded  to  be  led  back  into  Egyptian  slavery.  The  en- 
tire fabric  of  redemption  was  again  at  the  point  of  destruction. 
Moses  was  angry — very  angry — and  he  heard  the  voice  of  God 
saying,  "  How  long  shall  this  people  provoke  me?  and  how  long 
yet  will  they  not  believe  in  me,  with  all  the  signs  which  I  have 
shown  in  the  midst  of  them?  I  will  smite  them  with  the  pes- 
tilence, and  root  them  out,  and  I  will  make  of  thee  a  nation 
greater  and  mightier  than  they."  And  the  third  instance  was 
perhaps  no  less  threatening  than  the  two  former,  when  Korah 
and  his  conspirators  revolted  and  attempted  to  overthrow  both 
the  polity  and  policy  of  the  growing  Theocracy ;  and  also  in 
in  this  case  Moses  hears  God  saying:  "Separate  yourselves 


—  14  — 

from  the  midst  of  this  congregation,  and  I  will  make  an  end  of 
them  in  a  moment." 

In  his  glowing  wrath,  under  the  first  impression  and  violent 
uproar  of  his  passions,  Moses  imagined  that  destruction,  utter 
annihilation  of  the  rebellious  people  was  God's  justice  in  those 
various  cases.  The  people  hopelessly  degenerated,  he  rashly 
opined,  was  unfit  to  realize  and  actualize  the  sublime  scheme 
of  salvation,  of  which  he  was  the  harbinger  and  expounder. 
In  all  these  cases,  however,  Moses  prays  vehemently,  supplicates 
like  a  father  for  his  children  in  danger  of  death,  and  God  for- 
gives, is  reconciled  to  the  people,  and  the  threatened  evil  is  ob- 
viated. Take  all  those  narratives  literally,  and  God  is  repre- 
sented as  the  angry  despot,  ready  to  crush  arid  annihilate  his 
poor,  frail  and  deluded  children,  while  Moses  appears  as  the 
most  merciful,  the  benign  and  long-suffering  father  of  Israel, 
who  saves  them  by  his  ardent  entreaties.  All  this  is  contrary 
to  the  theology  and  moral  system  of  Moses  laid  down  in  the 
same  Pentateuch.  Take  those  narratives  in  their  correct 
sense,  understand  all  the  dialogues  between  God  and  Moses 
from  the  psychological  standpoint  as  subjective,  and  not  as  06- 
jective  incidents,  as  ideal,  and  not  as  real  facts,  and  those 
events  teach  how  passionate,  impetuous,  rash  and  reckless 
Moses  was,  so  that  his  first  impressions  under  those  circum- 
stances were  horrid,  terrible,  reckless,  destructive,  and  yet  they 
appeared  to  him  just,  and  becoming  the  eternal  God  of  justice. 
But  at  the  same  time  those  very  events  suggest  what  the  sec- 
ond sober  thought  of  Moses  must  have  been.  They  show  how 
powerful  his-  reason  and  conscience  were,  to  master,  to  over- 
come and  bridle  his  mighty  passion,  and  to  direct  him  to  the 
right  and  good,  the  just  and  true. 

Great  men  have  mighty  passions.  One  efficient  cause  of 
their  greatness  is  the  superior  power  of  their  passion.  ''  He 
who  is  greater  than  his  neighbor  is  of  mightier  passion,"  said 


—  15  — 

an  ancient  sage.  Groat  deeds  rise  first  and  foremost  from  the 
pressure  of  excited  and  ignited  passion.  Cool,  frigid,  little 
men  may  be  cunning,  devising  and  calculating  heads,  but  they 
will  never  perform  great,  heroic  and  pre-eminent  feats,  to  move 
and  inspire  large  masses,  to  benefit  and  elevate  inert  multi- 
tudes. If  those  mighty  passions  are  unbridled,  they  lead  to 
acts  of  barbarity,  violence,  cruelty,  reckless  fury,  and  end  fre- 
quently in  self-destruction.  But  where  the  reason  and  con- 
science of  the  man,  as  was  evidently  the  case  with  Moses,  are 
stronger  than  the  mighty  passions,  to  control  and  govern  them, 
to  direct  and  apply  them  to  great  and  good  deeds,  to  the  elevar 
tion  and  salvation  of  man  ;  there  you  find  the  great  man,  and 
there  only.  His  passions  must  be  mighty,  his  first  impressions 
violent,  but  his  reason  and  conscience  must  be  so  much 
mightier,  and  his  second  sober  thought  correct,  benign,  just 
and  wise.  This  was  the  case  with  Moses,  and  this  completes 
the  picture  of  his  moral  character.  If  Thomas  Carlyle  had 
written  a  biography  of  Moses,  he  would  have  summed  it  up 
somewhat  to  this  effect :  This  man's  intellect  was  so  powerful 
that  his  moral  principles  were  so  correct  and  his  deeds  so  enor- 
mous ;  and  this  would  be  correct  under  all  ordinary  circum- 
stances, but  Moses  is  an  extraordinary  phenomenon  in  the  his- 
tory of  man.  '•  Mos^s  is  the  m  >4  exalted  personality  in  the 
oldest  history," says  the  historian  L. von  Ranke  (Wcltgeschichte 
L,  1  Leite  42).  Ordinary  causes  are  inadequate  to  produce  ex- 
traordinary effects.  Neither  the  gigantic  intellect  and  the  pow- 
erful passions,  nor  the  most  intense  love  of  liberty  and  justice 
will  account  for  the  extraordinary  and  unique  character,  work 
and  legislation  of  Moses.  Think  of  a  man  who  was  educated  at 
a  royal  court,  spending  the  greater  part  of  his  life  as  an  obscure 
shepherd  in  the  wilderness  without  relinquishing  the  great  ob- 
ject of  his  life,  the  redemption  of  his  people  from  bondage,  and 
establishing  a  m  >del  nation  on  the  principles  of  monotheism, 


—  16  — 

moral  law,  freedom,  justice  and  equality,  when  all  around  the 
world  was  submerged  in  polytheism,  slavery  and  incest.  Had 
he  ever  abandoned  that  object,  he  could  not  have  beheld  the 
vision  of  the  burning  bush,  nor  could  he  have. understood  its 
import.  Think  of  a  man  who  appeared  with  his  staff  before  a 
mighty  king  and  court  to  demand  in  the  name  of  the  unknown 
God  the  liberation  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  slaves,  and  not 
only  unaided  by  the  natural  means  of  accomplishing  such  a 
radical  revolution,  but  even  against  the  will  of  the  liberated 
masses  carries  his  point,  leads  an  entire  people  out  of  its  na- 
tive land  into  a  howling  desert  and  overcomes  Pharaoh  with  all 
his  power  to  the  bitter  end  of  the  mighty  antagonist's  death. 
All  the  miracles  recorded  in  the  Pentateuch  as  such  are  not  as 
wonderful  and  astounding  as  is  this  simple  fact,  which  none 
can  deny.  A  nation  was  born,  a  free  people  was  organized  out 
of  a  horde  of  slaves,  notwithstanding  the  relentless  opposition 
of  the  then  greatest  power  on  earth.  Think  furthermore  of 
the  man's  organizing  and  governing  talent  as  displayed  in  the 
camp  in  the  wilderness,  its  marches  and  its  rest,  an  organizing 
mastership  which  astounded  even  the  heathen  prophet  Balaam 
and  caused  him  to  bless  where  he  was  called  to  curse.  Think 
of  the  man's  patience,  forbearance  and  unshaken  consistency, 
in  the  wilderness,  when  he  saw  his  projects  frustrated  and  his 
hopes  blighted,  his  comrades  perish  and  his  end  approaching. 
Think  of  all  that  and  the  distressing  details  thereof,  and  ex- 
plain it  by  natural  causes,  if  you  can.  There  is  a  mystery  at 
the  bottom  of  this  character  without  precedent  or  parallel  in 
history,  and  this  mystery  is  the  powerful  conviction  of  Moses 
that  he  was  in  possession  of  truth,  the  whole  truth,  the  death- 
less, everlastig  truth ;  and  his  unshaken  faith  in  the  majestic 
power  of  truth,  to  which  everything  must  yield  ;  his  conviction 
and  faith  that  he  was  the  servant  of  God,  the  inspired  messen- 
ger of  the  Most  High,  the  man  of  destiny,  the  apostle  of  Prov- 


—  17  — 

idence.  This  solves  the  mystery,  and  nothing  else  can.  What- 
ever one  might  believe  in  regard  to  Providence,  miracles,  inspi- 
ration, revelation  and  kindred  conceptions,  there  is  one  point 
that  all  must  admit,  and  that  is  that  Moses  verily  believed  and 
trusted  in  the  only  true  God  and  Providence,  and  that  he  verily 
believed  he  was  inspired  and  commissioned  by  the  one  and  true 
God  to  say  and  to  do  that  which  he  did  say  and  do.  He  was 
so  sure  of  his  office,  dignity  and  destiny  that  he  was  not  jealous 
when  Eldad  and  Medad  prophesied  in  the  camp,  and  in  the  hour 
of  distress  he  could  address  his  God  thus  :  "  Behold,  thou  hast 
said  unto  me,  bring  up  this  people  and  thou  hast  not  made 
known  to  me  him  whom  thou  wouldst  send  with  me,  and  thou 
hast  said,  I  have  distinguished  thee  (known  thee)  thy  name, 
and  thou  hast  also  found  grace  in  my  sight." 

The  power  of  this  conviction  and  the  might  of  his  faith, 
which  make  the  basis  of  his  character,  complete  the  faint  out- 
lines we  are  able  to  draw  of  the  man  Moses,  of  whom  it  is  re- 
ported in  holy  writ  God  said  :  "  My  servant  Moses  is  authen- 
ticated in  all  my  house  "  (Kin  JOKJ  W2  ?33),  the  authorized  ex- 
pert in  the  entire  moral  household  of  Providence.  This  point 
however,  leads  us  directly  into  another  division  of  this  humble 
essay,  namely,  into 

THE   WORK   DONE   BY   MOSES. 

The  historian  mentioned  above  says  furthermore,  "  The  idea 
of  the  extra-mundane  and  intellectual  God  was  conceived  by 
Moses  and,  so  to  say,  incorporated  in  the  people  which  he  or- 
ganized and  led.  The  incarnation  can  not  be  accomplished  in 
the  infinite  purity  of  the  idea,  still  it  radiates  from  everything 
which  the  legislator  ordained,  and  one  might  say  that  he  was 
the  Pedagogue  of  his  people  which  he  organized."  This  is  the 
voice  of  impartial  history.  All  the  quibbling  of  theology,  that 
of  Kuenen  and  Wellhausen  included,  can  not  change  it.  The 
scoffing  of  petulant  humorists,  with  the  laughter  and  applause 


—  18  — 

of  inconsiderate  masses,  can  not  impair  it.  History  is  history 
in  spite  of  all  quibblings,  humorisms  and  burlesques.  Moses 
left  to  posterity  in  the  Five  Books  a  five-act  drama,  in  grandeur 
unapproachable,  in  sublimity  insurpassable,  in  beauty  incompar- 
able beyond  the  poet's  loftiest  flight  of  imagination,  incarna- 
ting the  greatest  subject  ever  thought  of  b}7  man,  the  birth  and 
organization  of  a  free  and  sanctified  nation,  the  birth  and  tri" 
umph  of  Heaven's  truth  and  benignity,  Seraphic  light  and 
Shekinah  glory  upon  this  earth  with  its  darkness,  slavery  and 
incest.  Moses  was  the  greatest  of  all  master  artists.  Painters 
and  sculptors  failed  to  exhaust  the  grand  characters  and  scen- 
eries produced  by  that  creative  genius.  He  was  himself  the 
greatest  of  all  known  sculptors,  and  left  to  posterity  that  colos- 
sal and  imperishable  statue,  hewn  from  the  solid  rock  of  truth, 
inscribed  with  the  weal  and  woe  of  all  ages  and  generations ; 
the  pedestal  is  the  habitable  earth,  its  head  reaches  heaven's 
dome,  its  forms  are  gigantic ;  and  the  name  of  that  inimitable 
colossus  is  Israel,  the  immortal,  eternal  nation  with  the  beauty 
of  God's  chosen  people. 

MOSES   AS   A    REFORMER. 

Altogether  too  high-flying,  too  top-lofty,  too  poetical,  too  em- 
phatic and  enthusiastic  without  sufficient  cause,  says  our  very 
critically  inclined  friend,  who  has  collected  and  systematized 
pins  enough  to  sting  you  and  fasten  on  you  the  posters  of  all 
theaters  and  circuses;  too  much  for  one  man,  says  he,  for 
Moses  was  after  all  a  mere  reformer.  He  found  one  piece  of  his 
laws  here  and  another  piece  there ;  he  took  a  patch  from  Egypt, 
others  from  Asiatic  nations  and  made  of  it  the  patch-work 
comfort  which  you  call  the  Law  of  Moses.  Hold  on,  my  friend, 
let  us  see  about  that. 

In  regard  to  culte,  the  sacrificial  polity,  the  Levitical  priest- 
hood and  Levitical  laws  of  cleanness  and  diet,  judicial  and  so- 
cial laws  and  institutions,  especially  marital  laws,  polygamy, 


—  19  — 

slavery,  the  institution  of  the  avenger  of  blood,  and  kindred 
topics,  he  was  a  mere  reformer.  The  laws  and  customs  which 
the  Hebrews  had  adopted  of  the  Egyptians,  or  developed  in 
their  own  social  and  political  life  in  Goshen,  like  the  division 
into  twelve  tribes  and  the  government  by  the  first-born  and  el- 
ders, and  whatever  they  had  inherited  of  the  Patriarchs,  and 
by  them  probably  of  the  Chaldees  and  Assyrians,  could  in  the 
main  be  adopted  and  reformed  only  to  harmonize  them  with 
the  Mosaic  Monotheism  and  the  necessary  sequents  of  that 
Monotheism.  So  far,  it  is  correct  to  speak  of  Moses  as  a  re- 
former, who  learned  of  the  Egyptians,  the  Chaldees  and  others. 
This  adoption  and  adaptation,  however,  only  proves  two  points, 
— in  the  first  place,  that  the  laws  and  institutions,  as  we  find 
them  in  the  Pentateuch,  were  given  for  and  to  a  people  coming 
directly  from  Egypt,  with  the  laws,  customs  and  institutions  of 
that  ancient  country ;  in  the  second  place,  this  proves  the 
wisdom  and  impartiality,  as  well  as  the  prudence,  of  Moses. 
Whatever  was  good  and  useful  in  the  traditions  of  his  people 
or  the  laws  and  customs  of  the  Egyptians,  and  congenial  to 
his  system,  he  adopted  and  sanctioned.  Whatever  wrong  was 
too  strong  to  be  eradicated  at  once,  like  polygamy,  slavery,  ani- 
mal sacrifices  and  similar  inherited  evils,  he  surrounded  with 
modifying  laws,  leading  to  their  gradual  abolition  and  eradica- 
tion. Still,  everything  was  bent  and  cut  and  changed  to  ..bear 
the  impress  of  his  spirit,  the  criteria  of  his  system,  and  the 
luster  of  Monotheism — the  Living  God  of  Israel  and  the  Sinaic 
principle.  A?  a  reformer,  it  must  be  admitted  that  he  was 
wise  enough  to  understand  that  no  man  can  commence  an  en- 
tirely new  history,  and  none  can  overcome  at  once  all  evils. 
History  and  the  statu  quo  exert  their  rights  under  all  circum- 
stances. However,  Moses  was  by  no  means  a  mere  reformer ; 
he  was  much  more, 


—  20- 

A  WISE  AND  JUST  LEGISLATOR. 

When  you  sift  the  question  down  to  the  system — to  those 
sublime  and  universal  principles  which,  with  the  Mosaic  dis- 
pensation, opened  the  new  era  of  man's  history,  the  reign  of 
spirit  and  freedom  and  the  superiority  of  holiness  and  love  as 
it  now  predominates  more  or  less  in  the  religious,  social  and 
political  conceptions  of  the  entire  civilized  world — it  is  utterly 
false  to  call  Moses  a  reformer.  The  Mosaic  dispensation  can 
only  be  called  the  spiritual  creation  of  a  lofty  genius  or  the 
gracious  gift  of  revelation ;  hence,  Moses  was  either  the  "  Ser- 
vant of  the  Lord,"  or  the  divinely-gifted  genius,  which  terms 
may  be  synonymous.  For  u  to  behold  the  similitude  of  God," 
and  to  be  spoken  to  by  him  "face  to  face,"  is  perhaps  identical 
with  the  most  perfect  conceptions  of  the  loftiest  genius,  en- 
gaged with  the  holiest  and  most  sublime  themes. 

Take  a  cursory  survey  of  the  Mosaic  dispensation,  and  you 
will  find  this :  God,  or  rather  the  ineffable  Jehovah,  is  the 
password  which  leads  you  through  the  entire  sanctum  to  the 
very  sanctum  sanctorum  of  the  whole  Mosaic  system  of  doc- 
trine and  law.  It  is  supposed,  indeed,  that  Monotheism  was 
the  oldest  groundwork  of  religion,  which  gradually  degenerated 
into  polytheism  and  idolatry.  The  Bible  admits  this,  and 
documentary  evidence  to  a  certain  degree  supports  it.  Upon 
this  alleged  fact  is  based  the  theory  that  Moses  adopted  the 
Monotheism  of  the  Egyptian  priests,  or  also  the  Jews  adopted 
it  from  the  eastern  nations,  from  the  Arians  even,  as  some 
ingenious  archaeologists  add.  The  one  theory,  or  rather  hy- 
pothesis, is  as  good  as  the  other.  The  Monotheism  of  Moses 
differs  from  that  discovered  under  the  debris  and  rubbish  of 
huge,  smashed  and  crushed  idols,  under  the  ruins  and  frag- 
ments of  temples  and  altars  strewn  with  the  bleached  bones  of 
human  victims,  and  in  the  myths  and  legends  of  bewildered 


—  21  — 

minds,  as  the  sun  differs  from  the  candle  light.  The  idea  of 
spirit  and  spirituality,  hence  of  freedom  and  holiness,  is  a 
nonentity  in  all  ancient  mythology,  theogony  and  theodicy,  so 
that  the  very  idea  of  a  controlling  intellect  in  nature  (Nous, 
the  shaping  spirit)  was  unknown  to  the  Pagan  world  prior  to 
Anaxagoras,  in  the  fourth  pre-Christian  century.  The  god  of 
the  ancient  nations  was  an  abstraction  of  concrete  nature  in  its 
totality,  materialistic  and  fatalistic,  and  the  gods  were  fractions 
thereof,  abstractions  of  natural  forces  and  energies,  personified 
in  celestial  bodies  by  Zabaites,  in  natural  'objects  by  Feticists, 
in  defunct  men  and  women  in  Olympus,  among  the  advanced 
Pagans,  without  the  least  similarity  to  the  Living  God  of  Israel. 

The  Monotheism  of  Moses,  symbolized  in  the  term  Jehovah, 
is  the  expression  of  the  all-producing,  all-pervading,  all  con- 
trolling, all-possessing,  self-conscious  and  all-knowing,  infinite, 
free  and  almighty  spirit,  revealed  in  the  material  universe 
which  does  not  contain  him,  and  reflected  in  human  reason, 
which  can  not  comprehend  him,  omnipresent  in  nature  and 
history  without  being  absorbed  therein.  The  Living  God  of 
Israel  as  Moses  taught  him  is  substance,  and  no  mere  abstrac- 
tion. He  is  life  and  love,  reason  and  freedom,  the  will  and  the 
power,  and  no  symbol  of  concrete,  dead  and  cold  matter,  with 
its  iron  necessity  and  fatalism.  He  is  God,  the  absolute  and 
necessary  existence,  and  all  nature  has  relative  existence  only, 
and  is  the  mere  reflex  of  his  wisdom,  power,  goodness  and  holi- 
ness. This  is  the  Mosaic  Monotheism  which,  besides  the  ele- 
ments thereof  inherited  of  the  patriarchs,  is  as  original  and 
unique  as  reason  itself.  Moses  alone  could  fully  comprehend 
this  immense  revelation,  as  genius  only  fully  comprehends  its 
own  mighty  creations.  We  understand  thereof  only  that  which 
loboring  talent  is  permitted  to  grasp  of  the  production  of  genius, 
much  or  little,  never  in  its  completeness,  fullness  and  unity. 

This  is  the  key  to  the  Mosaic  dispensation  and  legislation, 


22  

minus  the  heritage  and  the  circumstances  to  which  the  leading 
principles  had  to  be  accommodated  for  the  time  being.  In  the 
light  of  that  Monotheism  the  material  universe  appeared  to  be 
the  work  of  the  Great  Architect,  an  organic  cosmos,  with  plan, 
design,  ultimate  end,  and  all  things  therein  co-ordinate  and 
subordinate ;  and  this  is  the  foundation  of  all  science. 

Man  being  the  image  of  God,  a  reflex  of  the  universal  in- 
tellect, will  and  love,  rose  from  his  insignificance  to  which 
Paganism  had  degraded  him  to  the  lofty  position  of  creation's 
ultimate  end,  God's  representative  on  earth,  a  free,  moral  and 
intellectual  agent.  This  is  the  first  derivative  of  that  sublime 
principle  of  Monotheism  :  Man  is  godlike  and  free.  This  is 
the  postulate  of  Moses,  upon  which  rises  his  system  of  ethics 
with  freedom  and  equality  at  the  base,  the  preservation  and 
happiness  of  the  human  lace  at  its  apex.  "Ye  shall  be  a 
kingdom  of  priests,"  he  announced  to  his  people — every  one  a 
priest,  every  person  one  of  the  highest  class  and  caste — none 
to  be  superior  and  none  inferior  before  God  and  His  laws — one 
law  and  one  statute  to  be  for  all,  the  native  and  the  alien. 
This  announcement  of  equality  was  as  new  and  original  with 
Moses  as  his  proclamation  of  liberty,  of  Sabbath-year  and 
Jubilee-year.  It  was  the  inevitable  sequent  of  his  Monotheism. 

In  Egypt,  as  in  India  and  elsewhere,  society  was  broken  up 
into  castes  and  clans,  which  domineered  the  one  over  the 
other,  and  slavery  was  the  lot  of  all,  as  the  gods  themselves  were 
the  slaves  of  blind  and  relentless  fate  and  iron  necessity.  The 
chief  of  a  Pagan  nation  was  a  god  or  demi-god,  whom  every 
per&on  must  -obey  under  penalty  of  death.  The  chief  of  the 
Mosaic  government  is  the  prophet,  to  whose  teachings  and  ad- 
vices every  person  was  commanded  to  listen ;  but  none  could 
be  punished  by  human  authority  for  non-obedience  to  the 
prophet.  The  law  governs,  and  man  can  only  expound  and 
administer  it.  Theocracy  is  identical  with  democracy,  and 


—  23  — 

democracy  means  equality  before  the  law  and  the  sovereignty 
thereof.  The  law  is  divine,  it  is  God's,  who  alone  is  King,  i.  e., 
it  must  emanate  from  unadulterated  reason  and  the  principle 
of  absolute  justice.  Therefore,  it  must  exclude  none  and  em- 
brace and  protect  all  who  live  among  you  and  seek  prosperity 
and  happiness  with  you.  This  is  the  groundwork  of  the  Mo- 
saic ethics,  flowing  naturally  from  the  divine  fountain  of  his 
Monotheism. 

Embraced  therein  is  the  moral  law  which  must  govern  the 
individual.  The  God  of  Moses  is  holy,  and  that  is  again  origi- 
nally Mosaic.  The  gods  of  Paganism  were  sensuous  and  sen- 
sual beings,  to  whom  neither  purity  nor  virtue,  neither  right- 
eousness nor  holiness,  neither  spiritual  love  nor  intellectual 
enjoyment  was  attributed.  The  debauchery  and  violence  of 
the  gods  were  admired  by  immoral  men  and  glorified  by  lubric 
poets.  The  Most  Holy  One,  according  to  the  Mosaic  dispensa- 
tion, promised  his  chosen  people  that  they  should  become  to 
him  a  peculiar  treasure,  "  a  holy  nation,"  and  commanded 
them,  "  Ye  shall  be  holy  men  unto  me  " ;  "'  Ye  shall  be  holy, 
for  I,  Jehovah  your  God,  am  holy" ;  "  And  ye  shall  sanctify 
yourselves  and  be  holy,"  etc.  God  must  be  worshiped  in  right- 
eousness and  holiness. 

Man's  happiness  and  the  perfection  of  his  nature  depend  on 
the  purity  of  his  motives  and  the  righteousness  of  his  doings. 
Like  God,  man  must  learn  to  love  the  true,  the  good  and  the 
beautiful  for  their  own  sake,  and  abhor  falsehood  and  wicked- 
ness and  impurity  as  being  abominable  in  themselves.  So 
man  lives  godlike.  Religion  based  upon  falsehood  is  supersti- 
tion, and  superstition  is  the  progenitor  of  fanaticism,  injustice 
and  impurity.  As  you  forsake  God,  so  will  he  forsake  you  ;  as 
you  desert  truth  and  reason,  so  will  they  abandon  you.  No 
man  can  worship  God  and  feast  with  the  devil.  But  the  Pa- 
gans did.  Religion  and  morals  were  with  them  two  different 


—  24  — 

factors.  Morals  appeared  to  them  a  social  compact  and  politi- 
cal necessity.  The  most  pious  among  them  was  no  better  by 
his  religion  than  the  most  frivolous.  The  idea  of  holiness  as  a 
form  of  religious  worship  is  of  Mosaic  origin,  a  necessary  se- 
quent of  his  sublime  Monotheism. 

If  you  cast  a  glance  upon  the  entire  Mosaic  legislation  as 
the  prophets  understood  and  expounded  it,  you  will  find  these 
fundamental  thoughts  at  the  bottom  of  every  group  and  every 
detail  thereof.  Dietary  laws  and  the  laws  of  lustration  and 
purification  are  in  the  first  place  sanitary  laws,  surrounded 
with  symbolic  signification  of  inner  and  spiritual  holiness. 
Take  care  of  the  exhausted  and  the  wounded,  is  a  splendid 
martial  law.  Take  care  of  the  poor,  the  needy,  the  stranger,  the 
widow  and  the  orphan,  said  Moses,  and  his  poor  laws  are  with- 
out parallel  in  the  laws  of  nations.  The}'  stand  above  all  simi- 
lar laws  and  doctrines  of  antiquity,  inasmuch  as  with  Moses 
they  are  means  of  worship  and  holiness,  means  of  atonement 
and  redemption,  aye,  the  release  of  the  soul  out  of  the  bonds 
of  selfishness,  avarice  and  hardness  of  heart ;  the  worship  of 
God  through  returning  gratefully  to  him.  through  the  poor  or 
the  altar,  parts  of  the  profuse  gifts  which  he  bestows  upon  his 
children ;  and  gratefulness  is  one  of  the  most  eminent  virtues. 
Learn  to  make  sacrifices  in  order  to  overcome  your  greediness 
and  your  undue  attachment  to  the  dust  of  this  earth  ;  but  let 
your  sacrifices  be  to  God  for  holiness  and  to  man  for  goodness, 
for  the  preservation  and  happiness  of  the  race.  In  peace, 
"Love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself";  "And  ye  shall  love  the 
stranger,"  i.  e.,  you  shall  love  man,  he  is  God's  child  and  im- 
age. In  war,  slay  not  the  defenseless,  make  not  war  upon 
those  who  offer  you  peace  and  submission,  protect  female  chas- 
tity against  violence ;  destroy  no  property  wantonly,  destroy 
no  fruit  tree  when  you  besiege  an  enemy's  city,  and  force  none 
of  your  brethren  to  go  to  war  if  he  objects  to  it.  Let  the  law 


—  25  — 

govern,  and  not  the  violence  of  passions  ;  no  Lynch  law,  let  the 
courts  decide  and  the  bailiffs  execute,  have  cities  of  refuge  to- 
protect  the  manslayer,  take  cognizance  of  the  innocent  blood 
shed  in  your  land  and  take  no  ransom  of  the  assassin.  Take 
him  even  from  my  altar  to  put  him  to  death.  Be  just,  fair  and 
upright  in  all  your  doings  and  dealings. — To  what  end?  To  be 
holy,  to  do  the  will  of  your  God,  to  preserve  intact  the  human 
race  according  to  God's  covenant  with  man,  to  secure  happiness- 
to  man  and  holiness  to  yourselves.  So  the  whole  Mosaic  dis- 
pensation and  legislation  arise  from  his  Monotheism,  as  rises 
the  beautiful  tree  with  all  its  branches,  leaves,  blossoms  and 
fruit  from  its  roots,  as  heat  and  light  emanate  from  the  sun. 
In  order  to  correctly  understand  Moses  as  a  legislator,  and  to- 
comprehend  him  fully  as  a  man,  one  must  study,  first  and 
foremost,  his  theology,  his  Monotheism,  for  it  is  truly  his,  and 
the  foundation  of  his  character  and  dispensation. 

No,  I  am  not  going  to  review  that  whole  magnificent  struc- 
ture of  religion,  law  and  ethics  in  so  short  a  time  as  is  allotted 
to  me.  It  is  too  vast,  to  grand,  too  sublime,  too  lofty  a  moun- 
tain of  truth  and  justice  to  be  surveyed  in  so  short  a  time. 
The  loftiest  genius  of  antiquity  can  not  be  measured  in  one 
hour.  You  have  before  your  mind  the  author  of  the  great 
principle  that  the  governments  and  religions  of  nations  must 
be  built  upon  the  same  rock  of  truth  which  must  be  the  postu- 
late of  individual  character.  There  can  be  no  two  kinds  of 
ethics,  one  for  the  nation  and  another  for  the  individual ;  no  two- 
kinds  of  religion,  one  to  please  God  and  another  to  advance 
prosperity  and  happiness  among  men ;  no  two  kinds  of  human 
beings,  the  chosen  ones  and  the  pariahs,  before  God  and  man ; 
there  is  but  one  God,  arid  one  truth,  and  one  justice,  and  one 
human  family,  every  individual  of  which  is  God's  own  child. 
You  have  before  you  the  organon  of  revelation :  For  Moses 
informs  you :  Not  I,  but  your  God,  has  spoken  to  you,  and 


announced  to  you  the  decrees  of  heaven,  the  duties  and  hopes 
of  man.  Not  I,  Moses,  he  says,  but  the  Almighty  himself,  has 
taught  you  the  highest  and  surest  standard  of  rectitude  to 
guide  you  safely  to  prosperity,  happiness,  immortality  and 
eternal  bliss ;  to  erect  upon  it  the  government  to  protect  you 
and  the  religion  to  elevate  you.  Not  I,  Moses,  but  the  Al- 
mighty himself,  has  revealed  to  you  the  universal  dominion  of 
truth  and  justice,  of  freedom  and  love;  his  benign  Providence 
watching  over  all  and  each  of  you  ;  his  mercy  and  forbeaience 
with  your  weakness  and  shortcomings;  his  will  that  you,  all 
of  you,  be  holy,  happy,  immortal  and  for  ever  blessed.  On  all 
those  grand  precepts  and  principles  and  under  the  guidance  of 
the  same  God,  I  legislate  for  you  and  build  up  for  you  a 
structure  of  free  government  and  a  temple  of  imperishable 
religion-;  I  am  the  mere  servant  and  messenger  of  Jehovah, 
who  is  your  God  and  your  Father.  So  did  Moses  speak,  and 
so  did  he  act.  He  built  up  the  chosen  people,  the  ideal  nation, 
the  eternal  nation  which  is  and  exists  with  a  land  and  without 
it,  with  a  government  and  without  one,  in  prosperity  and 
adversity ;  the  people  which  has  seen  the  rise,  decline  and  fall 
of  all  ancient  empires,  stood  at  the  cradle  of  all  modern  nations 
and  powers,  groped  its  way  through  the  darkness  of  the  Middle 
Ages  ;  and  at  the  very  first  dawn  of  liberty  and  justice  among 
the  nations,  it  rose  again  with  vigor  and  energy  to  demonstrate 
its  vitality  and  its  ability  to  co-operate  in  the  solution  of  the 
new  problems  of  resurrecting  humanity. 

Standing  before  Moses  you  stand  before  the  man  who  has 
given  law  and'  religion  to  the  civilized  world ;  whose  standard 
of  right  and  justice  is  fast  becoming  the  world's  beacon  light 
and  guid'ng  star;  whose  doctrines  of  religion,  of  God,  human 
dignity,  freedom  and  righteousness  conquer  the  masses,  capti- 
vate the  reasoners,  enlighten  and  humanize  the  millions.  Once 
the  mighty  peals  of  thunder  roared  upon  Sinai,  overwhelmed 


_  i 

•by  the  sounds  of  the  trumpets  and  cornets,  and  above  all  roar- 
ing and  thundering  resounded  the  word  and  law  of  God  shak- 
ing the  wilderness  and  re-echoing  from  Paran  and  Seir.  Louder 
and  mightier  yet  resounded  that  one  great  and  powerful  word 
of  the  Almighty,  which  was  freedom !  freedom !  freedom ! 
Freedom  it  resounded  from  Sinai,  mind  is  free,  the  spirit  is 
free,  man  is  free,  Jehovah  is  the  God  of  freedom;  and  now  it 
rolls  and  re-echoes  from  ocean  to  ocean  the  mind  is  free,  the 
spirit  is  free,  man  is  free,  crush  the  yoke,  break  the  shackles, 
man  is  free. 

Standing  before  Moses  you  face  the  first  declaration  of  in- 
dependence, the  first  proclamation  of  liberty,  the  first  and 
eternal  blast  from  the  trumpet  of  freedom,  the  redemption  of 
the  spirit,  the  elevation  of  reason  to  its  sovereign  rights,  you 
stand  before  the  majesty  of  righteousness,  of  purity  and  virtue, 
face  to  face  with  the  sovereignty  of  truth,  the  glory  of  holi- 
ness, and  the  divine  excellence  of  human  nature. 

Was  Moses  a  statesman,  a  lawgiver,  a  teacher  of  righteous- 
ness and  a  servant  of  Jehovah?  The  civilized  world  testifies 
that  he  was.  Was  Moses  a  reality,  an  incomparable  truth? 
What  poets  can  not  imitate,  the  loftiest  genius  can  not  dupli- 
cate, no  nation  and  no  nations  have  reproduced,  must  be  the 
reality  of  truth.  Moses  was  the  grand  architect  of  that  gor- 
geous palace  which  the  prophets  and  bards  frescoed,  around 
which  the  sages  built  the  fence  and  park  and  colonnades,  and 
the  reasoners  lit  the  lamps  upon  the  meandering,  winding 
avenues  and  approaches  to  the  lofty  portals. 

WAS  MOSES  A  GREAT  MAN? 

It  sometimes  appears  to  me  as  if  Moses  were  still  standing 
upon  the  pinnacle  of  Mount  Sinai,  high  above  the  mists  of  this 
earth,  enveloped  in  the  benign  light  of  divine  truth,  surrounded 
by  the  seraphs  of  light  and  purity,  pointing  heavenward  and 
looking  onward  and  forward  to  the  family  of  man,  and  he  np- 


—  28  — 

pears  to  me  as  inviting  all  nations  to  rise  and  to  climb  up  to 
that  glory-crowned  height  of  righteousness,  purity  and  holi- 
ness, liberty  and  equality,  justice  and  peace  on  earth  in  the 
name  of  the  One  Eternal  God  and  in  behalf  of  the  one  and  in- 
divisible human  family ;  a  summit,  alas !  which  the  human 
family,  in  spite  of  all  combustions  and  revolutions,  all  the 
struggles  and  the  precious  blood  shed,  has  not  yet  reached. 
Then  I  appear  to  myself  very  small,  very  insignificant,  all  per- 
sons and  things  appear  small  and  insignificant  to  me,  and  I 
feel  compelled  to  think  that  either  God  spoke  through  the 
mouth  of  Moses  or  nature's  productive  energy  was  exhausted 
in  the  great  mind  of  that  one  man,  who  comprehended  the  en- 
tire household  of  God  on  this  earth,  and  opened  its  mysterious 
avenues  to  the  gaze  of  man.  He  who  has  legislated  in  the 
Wilderness  for  the  nations  of  so  many  centuries,  and  has  es- 
tablished the  only  immortal  nation ;  he  who  taught  us  God, 
freedom,  equality,  righteousness,  purity,  humanity  and  holi- 
ness, was  certainly  a  great  and  good  man  and  a  most  extraor- 
dinary reformer. 


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